Policy
The evidence, and where we take it
We measure the federal marketplace and carry the evidence — and what it actually means for small business — to the people writing the rules. What we file, publish, and testify is recorded here.
Policy Series · April 2025
America's Supply Base
Protecting small business access to federal contracts is a national imperative
The federal government is rewriting the rules of procurement. Our rebuttal to the April 2025 Executive Order, alongside three foundational reports, documents what is at risk — and what seventy years of statute, regulation, and bipartisan congressional action actually require.
Open the policy series →SBA has proposed replacing 980 industry size standards with 338 and changing the method behind them. Comments close September 21. Our tool turns your business experience into two filed comments in about ten minutes.
OMB proposes consolidating forty-six industries into eighteen. Tested against the government's own data: eleven of the eighteen exactly duplicate codes that already exist, and the twenty-eight industries being eliminated carry $29 billion in annual federal obligations.
The FAR Council invited small entities to comment on the existing regulations the overhaul would remove. ASBCC accepted — and counted, from the government's own data, what the Council's analysis never did.
Sixteen pages on what the rewrite of Parts 5, 6, 7, and 10 does to the front door of the federal marketplace — grounded in our reproducible analysis of roughly 30 million contract actions, FY2022–FY2026.
Before commenting on substance, ASBCC asked the FAR Council for adequate time — 90 days, or at minimum the 60 that Executive Order 12866 treats as the norm — to analyze a rewrite spanning more than a thousand pages of regulatory text.
ASBCC is proud to announce its role as a National Partner Organization in the Restore Fair Access™ campaign. This critical initiative unites small businesses, local communities, and economic advocates nationwide to protect fair access to federal contracts, secure economic opportunities for all businesses, and preserve a vibrant, competitive American economy.
A sweeping Executive Order may be quietly dismantling decades of small business contracting protections — with no public notice, no Congressional oversight, and no clear plan to preserve access.
ASBCC’s new memo breaks it down: what’s at risk, what the law actually requires, and why this matters for communities, innovation, and America’s defense base.
A letter from Charmagne Manning, President of The American Small Business Chamber of Commerce. These reports show just how bipartisan this effort has always been—and just how deeply embedded your right to participate in federal contracting is in our laws and regulations. From the Small Business Act of 1953 to the most recent National Defense Authorization Acts, your place in federal procurement has been protected not just by policy—but by statute.
A newly released report is raising alarms across the small business contracting community. The DOGE Small Business Impact Report, published as of March 27, 2025, outlines the far-reaching consequences of recent policy decisions implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the current administration.
A sobering new report reveals a catastrophic 49% decline in small businesses participating in federal contracting since FY 2008. Despite an overall 27.5% increase in small businesses nationwide, the number of small firms securing federal contracts has dropped from 144,774 in 2008 to just 73,833 in 2023.
The FAR Council recently published a final rule dealing with small business certification issues, effective on January 17, 2025. This final rule came about to ensure that certain parts of the FAR and SBA rules are consistent.
The change: Adding additional circumstances that require an awardee to represent its size and/or socioeconomic status for orders placed under a multiple-award contract (MAC) per FAR 52.219-28(c)Post award Small Business Program Re-representation.
On January 21, 2025, President Trump issued the Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity Executive Order (the “EO”), which revokes Executive Order 11246, a 60-year-old Civil Rights-era directive that prohibited federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, and required federal contractors to take affirmative action to provide equal opportunity in employment.
Today, Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice in President Biden’s Cabinet for America’s more than 34 million small businesses, is celebrating the culmination of the SBA’s efforts to transform customers’ experiences with the agency through its new MySBA digital platform. After making improvements to MySBA Loans, MySBA Certifications, and MySBA Learning, the SBA now is moving toward a single sign-on MySBA platform that will deliver a seamless experience for users.
Action Required: DoD, GSA, and NASA are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to issue policy on small business participation on certain multiple-award contracts. Interested parties should submit written comments to the Regulatory Secretariat Division at the address shown below on or before March 17, 2025, to be considered in the formation of the final rule.
Small business owners interested in contracting with the Defense Logistics Agency can now use a new search function on DLA’s Small Business webpage to get contact information for the supply chain that manages the items or services they provide.
The new tool is the first iteration of a more extensive Supplier Pathway program intended to help new entrants navigate government contracting processes and learn the nuances of working with DLA.
Effective Jan. 16, 2025, the United States Small Business Administration (SBA)’s Final Rule will significantly impact mergers & acquisitions involving small business government contractors and investors in the government contracting industry. A September 2024 GT Alert summarizes important aspects of the SBA’s Proposed Rule and discusses key changes that might impact small business government contractors. The Final Rule echoes much of the Proposed Rule’s language and will affect the landscape for small business contractors and investors in the federal government contracting industry.
ASBCC's comment supporting the proposed climate-disclosure rule's aims while asking for industry-targeted criteria, education, lead time, and financial assistance for small contractors.
Take action
Your experience is evidence.
ASBCC’s filings argue from the government’s own data — and from what suppliers tell us. If procurement changes are affecting your business — lost work, contracts you can no longer reach, decisions you are weighing about staying in the federal market — put it on the record with us. Your account stays confidential unless you tell us otherwise. New to advocacy? The guide explains how small firms engage the process.